Opticare Vision

Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Campbell County Unveils New $7.5 Jail Expansion

Campbell County unveiled the expansion of its detention center last night, as elected officials, citizens and interested parties saw firsthand what the $7.53 million dollar expansion project looked like as a finished product.

A new wing of the jail includes 107 jail beds and 36 isolation beds. The former district court offices has been refit into jail space, which includes new administration offices and a public visitation area.

The big change, according to officials, is that the jail expansion has been laid out so that it can accommodate substance abuse disorder programming. Drug abuse, particularly opiates, have been a major factor in the increase in jail population in northern Kentucky.

In all, Jailer Jim Daley said the jail will have a 689 inmate capacity and at least 30 beds will be used to house inmates in that new substance abuse program. The substance abuse disorder program will initially treat females and is something Daley said he believes is needed to break the cycle of incarceration caused by drug addiction.

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"The expansion provides us additional security for the entire facility by providing us with additional bed space," said Daley. "We also hope to turn the newer big dorm into a female work program, which means we will have people in a lockdown facility to do all of our cooking and cleaning which we believe strongly will slow down the amount of drugs coming into this facility because we'll have more control of inmates coming in and out."
The county jail makes up about a third of the entire Campbell County budget at around $9 million dollars in 2015. Daley said he expects that to increase.

"It's going to go up another $3-4 million excluding payment on the new facility. With the increase in beds, I'm going to need another 25 more staff. Our medical, security and food costs are going to go up. The good news is that the new facility will allow me to hold a lot more female state inmates. So at least initially, we're going to be getting paid for the largest portion of these beds and that was our plan when we first started this process ten years ago. We'd like to pay our price down with paying customers so that at some point in time when it's filled up with just county inmates the facility will be mostly, if not completely, paid for."

The Campbell County Detention Center employs about 125 people currently.
Campbell County Judge-Executive, Steve Pendery, said that the increase in jail population has become the biggest drain to the county budget.

Campbell County Judge Executive, Steve Pendery, gives a tour of the new $7.5 million dollar jail expansion at the Campbell County jail. FTM file.

"We had to expand because we have so many people," said Pendery. "We have nearly 700 inmates in a space that designed for far less than that. When I was first elected, we had 135 beds, so if we were going to have to do something, why not do it in a way that the design lends itself to a solution."

Pendery said that they believe that investing in the substance abuse disorder programming within the confines of the jail will pay off for individuals and the county coffers in the long run.

"We are offering the hope that we'll have fewer customers in the jail in the future. It's not going to happen overnight. Medical professionals will tell you that the brain chemistry in a heroin addict is changed for 18 month to two years. That's what's different about our program. We've arranged for that longer-term program are believe it'll pay off in the future."

Daley also said the detention center expansion also added more isolation cells that he believes were desperately needed. Jail officials use these cells to separate disorderly inmates who are not complying with the set code of conduct. Previously, he had five such cells at his disposal, but he said in an ideal scenario he should have about 80 cells.

"The new isolation cells are a God-send. Most jailers would tell you they like at least 10% of their cells to be isolation cells," said Daley. "We won't have 80, but we will have 41 which is much better than 5."

Some of the isolation cells are negative-air enabled, which Daley said is useful if an inmate has a communicable disease, to protect staff and other inmates from contamination.

Inmates could begin using the new wing and isolation cells by early December.

1 comment:

We shouldn't expand our jails. A huge percentage of inmates are in jail for non violent crimes. We should stop locking up non violent criminals. It ruins their chance of ever making something of their lives, frequently turning them in to career criminals. I have a nephew who was convicted of selling marijuana, and for the rest of his life he has to check that box on job applications 'have you ever been convicted of a felony'. He is a nice kid who made a mistake.